FORMBY had their fifth away game in a row when they travelled to Cheshire to play league newcomers 1874 Northwich on Saturday.

Formed last November by disgruntled Northwich Victoria supporters, 1874 are a fan-owned club in the FC United mould.

Having already played Vics in the FA Cup and beaten Villa 6-0 last Wednesday, on Saturday the Squirrels became the first club to play all three clubs from the Northwich stable.

The home side’s record crowd of 541 who turned up in the late summer sunshine on Saturday was the largest at a Formby game since the Squirrels played Liverpool in 2009.

1874 were sitting joint top of the table having won their last seven league games and only having lost one – to high flying Nelson – all season. However, having scored 16 goals in their last four games, Formby have found the form that made them last season’s league champions.

The stage was set for something special and that was what they got, though not in a manner that anyone would have chosen.

1874 got the game underway and were soon on the attack. A long ball towards Matty Ward saw Josh O’Connell quickly off his line to block at the striker’s feet and concede the first corner.

In a clever and clearly well-rehearsed routine, the ball was played out to Lee Duckworth, haring in unmarked from the halfway line to collect on the edge of the area. His sweet first time strike just cleared the Formby crossbar.

Josh O’Connell launched the resulting goal kick towards Mini Adegbenro who took the ball on and won a corner.

The kick was swung in to the 1874 area but not cleared. Knocked around, it dropped to the feet of Marvin Molyneux whose low shot found the bottom corner of the net to put the visitors a goal up only three minutes in.

A minute into the second half Mini Adegbenro received the ball on the wing and as he went to go by Craig Farnworth was taken out by the 1874 defender. After some lengthy treatment he was unable to continue so was replaced by John Edgerton.

Formby’s phenomenal workrate had really restricted 1874 to shots from distance that Molyneux was able to deal with. He punched a 30 yard free kick clear, following it with a second punch in the air in celebration.

The Squirrels’ commitment was absolute.

As 1874 struggled to break Formby down, the visitors almost scored on the break through Franny Smith and John Edgerton. With a full 13 additional minutes played the referee finally blew his whistle.

The entire defence were magnificent. The midfield, with barely one working hamstring between them, ran relentlessly. Up front Andy Olsen gave his all and the substitutes played their part too.

But the afternoon belonged to Marvin Molyneux.

Not only did he score the winning goal but played almost a full half as goalkeeper and kept a clean sheet.

Josh O'Connell is expected to miss a few games, and perhaps he'll have to earn the grey jersey back of the multitalented Molyneux.

If the two teams continue their form then they may well be locked in a promotion battle come springtime and the return fixture, three games before the end of the season, may have everything riding on it.

The win moved Formby up to seventh in the table, 13 points behind leaders Nelson though with four games in hand.

Nelson were top of the league when they came to Victoria Park in August to dish out a 3-1 beating in the league, and they return on Saturday as leaders in the League Challenge Cup first round.